LES PODEWELL, 91, DISTINGUISHED ACTOR

Anthony Burke Boylan, Tribune Staff WriterCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Les Podewell, 91, was a Chicago actor who starred with everyone from Tyrone Power to Bill Murray and performed work from radio episodes of "Sky King," "The Shadow" and "Little Orphan Annie" to a David Mamet play.

He died Nov. 19 in his Evanston home after complications from a stroke in August.

An actor until the end, Mr. Podewell was taken to Evanston Hospital after his stroke. The neurologists who were trying to gauge his coherence asked him to name the president of the United States and to tell them how many fingers they were holding up. At the urging of his daughter Polly, he instead regaled them with the Player's Speech, a soliloquy from Shakespeare's "Hamlet," which he last had performed in the 1930s.

"Daddy was very unassuming; he never talked about himself--which is unusual for an actor," said his daughter.

Mr. Podewell's career spanned 70 years, and he had more than 100 productions to his name. In the film "Groundhog Day," Mr. Podewell played a homeless man befriended by Murray's character.

He also had roles in such films as "Only the Lonely," "Gaily, Gaily" and "Mickey One." He appeared in the television films "The Dollmaker" with Jane Fonda, "Heart of Steel" with Peter Strauss and "Will," the life story of G. Gordon Liddy.

The early graduate of the Goodman School of Drama at DePaul University and the Chicago Art Theatre appeared with Power in a series of vignettes at the 1933 Century of Progress Fair in Chicago.

During the Depression, he starred in 21 productions for the Federal Theater, a government works program, with the likes of E.G. Marshall and John Huston.

After the advent of television, Mr. Podewell appeared on local programs, including "Hawkins Falls" and "Studs' Place," with his wife, Beverly Younger, who played Gracie the waitress.

"I'll never forget what a good actor he was. It was his craft. There was nothing fancy about it. It wasn't his art or his calling," said Studs Terkel, who will give the eulogy for Mr. Podewell.

Mr. Podewell struggled with crippling rheumatoid arthritis that left his hands and feet twisted. Despite that, his children recall him as a father who practiced carpentry and was a handyman around the house.

Mr. Podewell first met Younger at the Blackstone Theater in 1937 when they were appearing in Eugene O'Neill's "The Straw."

Mr. Podewell also taught drama and appeared in local productions, including Sam Shepard's "Fool for Love" at the Steppenwolf Theater. In the 1980s, he appeared in a series of new one-act plays by Tennessee Williams.

In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Podewell is survived by two sons, Richard and Buzz; another daughter, Penny Reid; seven grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and a brother.

A memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Saturday in the chapel of the First United Methodist Church of Evanston, 1630 Hinman Ave., Evanston.